Is Siren for you?
An honest, fast-read fit page. No pitch. Just what Siren is, who it fits, who it doesn't, and what you'll need to run it.
In one paragraph
Siren is a self-hosted WordPress plugin for running incentive programs. What makes it different is that one sale can trigger several programs at once. An affiliate can earn a referral commission, an instructor can earn a royalty, and a quarterly bonus pool can track your top performer, all on the same transaction. You run as many programs as you need, side by side, with each one carrying its own rate and rules. Every commission and payout record lives in your own WordPress database, so your program data is yours.
Best for
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Stores, platforms, or sites running on WordPress
The self-hosted plugin is built for WordPress, hooking attribution into integrations like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, LearnDash, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and NorthCommerce. Not on WordPress? Siren still reaches you through Full-Service (managed, available now) or Siren Cloud (hosted, founding access).
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Businesses that need more than one commission rule
Honestly, this is where Siren earns its keep. Run a VIP tier, an instructor royalty, a vendor revenue share, and a lead-gen bounty side by side. Each program has its own rate, rules, and enrolled partners, and multiple programs can pay out on the same sale.
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Course platforms and creator marketplaces
Siren's royalty model pays creators based on product ownership. Sell an instructor's course and they earn automatically, no referral link required. Stack that with an affiliate program and the person who drove the sale gets paid alongside the person who built the product.
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Subscription products with refund and renewal mechanics
Recurring commissions are included on Essentials and above. You can model renewals as their own conversion type with their own rate, so initial purchases, renewals, and upgrades all stay distinct instead of collapsing into one commission.
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Businesses that want their data on their own server
Every collaborator, conversion, commission, and payout record lives in your WordPress database. There's no shared-tenant SaaS, no data locked into a vendor you can't leave.
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Teams that want to design programs with AI help
Beacon, Siren's free AI assistant, can draft a complete program recipe from a plain-language description and answer configuration questions without making you read the whole docs tree first.
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Programs where auditability and dispute investigation matter
Every major record carries a built-in activity feed: a timestamped history of conversions, obligations, payouts, refunds, and reversals on that record. When a collaborator asks why a commission didn't fire, you open the conversion, scan the feed, and the answer is usually right there. No hunting through logs, no asking a developer.
Not best for
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A non-WordPress store that needs a proven self-serve tool today
The self-hosted plugin needs WordPress, so it won't run on Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, or Webflow. Non-WordPress stores aren't shut out: Siren reaches them through Full-Service (managed, available now) and Siren Cloud (hosted, in founding access). But if you want a generally available, self-serve product to set up yourself this minute, self-serve Cloud isn't there yet.
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Self-recruited MLM downlines
Siren pays arranged reporting-line overrides on Pro, where a manager or senior partner earns on their team's production. What it doesn't do is self-recruited MLM, where affiliates sign up other affiliates and build their own downlines. If self-recruitment chains are core to your model, a dedicated platform for that structure fits better.
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A built-in marketplace of ready-to-recruit affiliates
Siren runs programs for the partners you bring. It doesn't supply a marketplace of existing affiliates to recruit from. If a ready-made pool of partners is the point, a network built around one will serve you better.
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MemberPress-first membership sites
Siren doesn't integrate directly with MemberPress yet. If MemberPress drives your commerce, a tool with a native MemberPress integration is the cleaner choice today.
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Direct-link tracking or a built-in creatives library
Siren tracks through referral codes and links rather than raw direct-link visits, and it leans on WordPress pages for creative assets instead of a dedicated creatives library. If either is central to how you run partners, weigh that.
Platform assumptions
What Siren expects the world around it to look like.
Can Siren do this?
Quick yes/no on the questions we get most.
I need an affiliate program for my WooCommerce store
Yes. Siren's core use case. Start with the Basic Affiliate Program recipe.
I want instructors to earn royalties when their courses sell
Yes, including stacking with an affiliate program so both get paid on the same sale. See the Course Creator Royalty Program and Affiliate and Royalty Stack recipes.
I want to run a lead-gen bounty program and a sales program side by side
Yes. Use a program group to decide which one wins per conversion. See the Affiliate and Lead Gen Combo recipe.
I need to pay marketplace vendors a percentage of each sale they're part of
Yes. The Marketplace Vendor Commission recipe is built for this.
I want a quarterly top-performer bonus pool
Yes. Use a distributor. See the Monthly Sales Bonus or Management Incentive Plan recipes.
I want a manager or senior partner to earn on their team's sales
Yes. Reporting-line overrides on Pro pay an override up or down an arranged reporting line. What Siren doesn't do is self-recruited MLM, where affiliates sign up other affiliates and build their own downlines.
I want to track referrals across several separate sites or channels
The self-hosted plugin attributes per-installation. Attributing one program across several independent sites or non-WordPress channels is what Siren Cloud's single engine is built for (currently founding access).
Three recipes that show Siren in action
If one of these sounds like what you're trying to build, you're probably a fit.
Basic Affiliate Program
Simple percentage commission on every referred sale.
Includes 1 program
Affiliate and Royalty Stack
Affiliates earn for selling. Creators earn royalties on every sale of products they own.
Includes 2 programs
Marketplace Vendor Commission
The revenue-share engine for any multi-vendor marketplace.
Includes 1 program
Free AI assistant
Still on the fence? Ask Beacon.
Describe the program you have in mind. Beacon will tell you whether Siren is the right fit, and if so, which recipe to start from.
Works as a Custom GPT inside ChatGPT, or as an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, JetBrains, and other MCP-compatible clients. No signup required.
Fast answers
What is Siren, exactly?
Siren is a self-hosted WordPress plugin for designing incentive programs. Affiliate programs, royalties, revenue shares, referral programs, lead-gen bounties, scheduled performance bonuses. It uses one consistent set of building blocks: programs fire per-transaction, distributors fire on a schedule, and program groups sort out which program wins when two overlap.
How is Siren different from a classic affiliate plugin?
Classic plugins give you one affiliate program with a global commission rate and per-affiliate overrides for exceptions. Siren gives you named programs with their own rates and rules, and lets one sale trigger several programs at once. An affiliate can earn a referral commission, an instructor can earn a royalty, and a quarterly bonus pool can track top performers. All on the same transaction.
Do I need to be technical to run Siren?
No. Siren's admin UI covers most setup, and recipes (one-click program configurations) cover many common scenarios. Beacon, Siren's free AI assistant, can draft a program recipe from a plain-language description. Developers get a full REST API and extension framework when they need to go further.
Can I run Siren on Shopify or Webflow?
Not the self-hosted plugin, which needs WordPress and a WordPress commerce plugin (like WooCommerce or EDD) to track conversions. But you're not shut out: Full-Service (managed, available now) and Siren Cloud (hosted, in founding access) attribute Shopify, Stripe, and CRM sales through webhooks and the REST API, so a non-WordPress store can still run Siren.
Does Siren work with my LMS?
LifterLMS and LearnDash are supported natively, including course-completed and lesson-completed events. Other LMSes that sell through WooCommerce will still trigger sale-based commissions, because Siren watches WooCommerce orders. Course-level events, though, need a native integration.
What about data ownership?
Every collaborator, conversion, commission, obligation, and fulfillment record lives in your WordPress database. There's no shared-tenant SaaS service you have to trust. You can export or migrate anytime.
How does Beacon fit in?
Beacon knows every Siren feature, recipe, and configuration pattern. Use it as a Custom GPT inside ChatGPT, or as an MCP server in Claude, Cursor, VS Code, JetBrains, or any other MCP-compatible client. It helps you design programs, generate recipes, and troubleshoot setup without reading the full documentation tree.
What does Siren cost?
Siren Lite is free. Siren Essentials is $229/yr and unlocks multi-program support, program groups, distributors, the collaborator portal, recurring commissions, advanced attribution, and automatic store-credit payouts. Siren Plus ($299/yr) adds collaborator teams, automatic real-money payouts through Stripe, and lifetime commissions that keep crediting a collaborator on every future order from a customer bound to them, plus priority support. Siren Pro ($499/yr) adds arranged reporting lines with cascading overrides, and covers every advanced capability we ship, the moment we ship it. Every tier covers a single WordPress installation. If you need to deploy Siren across multiple client sites, that runs through our agency partner channel.
Try Siren Lite. It's free.
Start with Siren Lite. No credit card, no trial clock. If it's a fit, upgrade when you're ready. If it's not, you'll know fast.